U.S. Navy ship Essex, 2 Coast Guard Cutters will join LA Fleet Week

Headlining this year’s L.A. Fleet Week will be the return of the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Essex, a Wasp-class Landing Helicopter Dock that was a star attraction when it visited the 2022 military event in San Pedro.

Joining the Fleet Week’s popular ship lineup with the Essex will be two U.S. Coast Guard ships: Coast Guard Cutter Halibut, an 87-foot Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat stationed in Marina del Rey; and the USCGC Terrell Horne, a Fast Response Cutter based in Long Beach.

All of the ships will be open for free public tours throughout the 10th Annual L.A. Fleet Week, which will take place from Friday to Monday, May 22-25, with visitors also having the chance to meet and talk with the Navy sailors, Marines and Coast Guard members who serve on board.

The main public events will take place over four days through Memorial Day. The main expo grounds, which are centered around the Battleship Iowa, 250 S. Harbor Blvd., will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Monday.

The Essex will pull up on Tuesday, May 19, at Berth 46, 3011 Miner St., in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor — accessible only by shuttle — while the two Coast Guard vessels will be berthed in the Main Channel adjacent to the main expo grounds next to the Battleship Iowa. It wasn’t known as of Monday afternoon when the other ships will arrive.

Tours on the Essex will require guests first to join the digital queue. Those who join the queue will receive an assigned time to get in line for the shuttle bus. For instructions — and information about all the vessels — go to the LAFleetweek website.

The Coast Guard ships will be berthed at the Downtown Harbor,504 S. Harbor Blvd., near to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum and LA Fire Boat Station. The Coast Guard cutters will be a short walk from the LA Fleet Week grounds and visitors will not need to join the digital queue to tour those vessels.

All adults must present valid government-issued identification (state ID card, driver’s license or passport) to take Navy ship tours. Non-U.S. citizens must show valid passports and will be subject to a brief additional screening before boarding the vessels. Photocopies of IDs will not be accepted.

As recently as April, the Essex, a San Diego-based ship, has been training for a possible assignment to the Middle East, where a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has been ongoing amid the Iran War, according to the Navy.

The amphibious assault ship was built at what is now Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The Essex launched on Feb. 23, 1991, and was commissioned on Oct. 17, 1992. It is the fifth ship named for Essex County, Massachusetts, and served as the command ship for Expeditionary Strike Group Seven.

Assignments took the ship to the Persian Gulf in the early 2000s, among many other locations throughout the world. The Essex has also served in global relief missions.

Wasp class Landing Helicopter Dock amphibious assault ships provide the Marine Corps with the means to conduct ship-to-shore movement by helicopter and by landing craft, according to a Fleet Week press release. The ships can accommodate the landing craft utility and landing craft air cushion; can operate all helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft flown by the Marine Corps; and can operate and support AV-8B and F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft. They have extensive storage capacity and have proven useful in combat operations, major humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions.

Eight Wasp-class ships were built — seven of which are active. USS Bonhomme Richard LHD- 6 was extensively damaged by fire on July 12, 2020, while being upgraded in San Diego. The ship was decommissioned and sold for scrap.

A detailed history of the ship can be found at the U.S. Navy site navsource.net.

The vessel will have around 1,000 sailors and Marines who will be among the many uniformed sea service members participating in Fleet Week and other associated events around the port’s downtown and harbor areas throughout the week.

Coast Guard Cutter Halibut, meanwhile, is a patrol boat that was commissioned in 2002 and will be on display in the downtown harbor area between the LA Fire Station 112 and the LA Maritime Museum.

The fast response cutter Terrell Horne is based in San Pedro and is the third of four Coast Guard FRCs that will eventually be stationed in the Port of Los Angeles — and its story is connected to the Halibut’s.

The Terrell Horne was named for Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne III, who served as executive petty officer of Coast Guard Cutter Halibut. He died saving a crew member in harm’s way after a man identified as a drug smuggler used his fishing boat to purposely ram the Halibut as he was trying to escape capture.

In 2012, Horne was one of four Coast Guard officers on board the Halibut off the coast of Santa Cruz Island with the mission to intercept a Mexican panga, an open-hull fishing boat, suspected of drug smuggling.

Horne was 34, a married father of two sons and a Redondo Beach resident when he was killed in the confrontation.

Horne had placed himself in harm’s way trying to push his fellow crew member away from the oncoming collision; both crew members went overboard, with Horne sustaining a fatal injury.

FRCs are replacing the 1980s-era Island-class, 110-foot patrol boats and are designed for multiple missions, including drug and migrant interdictions; port, waterway and coastal security; fishery patrols; search and rescue; and national defense. The cutters feature advanced command, control, communication, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment. They can reach a maximum speed of more than 28 knots and have an endurance of at least five days.

Ship tours

Instructions for touring the Essex include:

• After arriving in San Pedro, make sure location services are enabled on your mobile phone.
• Visit getinline.lafleetweek.org.
• Submit your name and contact details to enter the digital queue.
• Monitor your phone for instructions and updates. You will be notified when it is your time to enter the shuttle line to tour the Essex.

Restrictions for all ship tours include:

• Visitors must be at least 5 years of age.
• No strollers permitted on the ships.
• Visitors must be able to walk unassisted without the aid of supporting devices for access to the vessels.
• Visitors must be able to walk through tight spaces and up and down steep ladders.
• No public restrooms are available aboard the ships, but will be on the dock.
• Wear closed-toed shoes. For safety, flip flops and high heels are strongly discouraged.
• No pets allowed.
• No banners, flags, political propaganda or the like are permitted.